Oct 12, 2014

October 12, 2014

Well my sweet boy,

Turns out your mom is a horrible journal writer. You are now almost 6 months old! That is so crazy. But you are STILL little and the cutest and most wonderful thing. We went to the States when you were 3.5 months old, and we flew all over. You flew with me to Vegas (and spent a few hours with Mam before my dad came to pick us up) through Dallas (Alex met up with us a couple weeks later), we drove to the ranch, drove up to Salt Lake, then flew to New York where we met up with Alex. We then flew to Martha’s Vineyard, back to Utah, then back to New York. Then down to Campinas for a few days, up to Iguaçu with you Hannah and Isabel, back to Campinas, then Fernando de Noronha. All those flights (16 with connections) within a month! And for the most part, you did really great. Except when you were colicky, but we found the “miracle worker” which is also known as gripe water. It would calm you down when nothing else would.

When we were in Salt Lake at a family reunion at my mom’s house in Tuahaye, you were inconsolable. Crying almost all the time. Of course I got mastitis (again) and hardly slept. It was a really rough to say the least. I was sick with a fever, sleep deprived, and felt like a horrible mother because you were clearly in pain. I remember one moment in particular when we were driving with my mom and Seth. I was in the back holding you, and Seth was driving with my mom in front. You were screaming, and I had tears silently streaming down my face. Seth looked in the rearview mirror and promptly pulled over, came and picked you up and went for a little walk to give me a few minutes of break. That afternoon at lunch, he didn’t even eat his food and took you the whole time- walking around outside so I could enjoy it. He is the sweetest uncle in the world, and he adores you! He told me multiple times you are his favorite nephew. To be honest, it’s a bit of mystery since you are always screaming when he holds you haha. When we heard about gripe water, we went straight to Walmart, opened it up right there in the store, and you calmed down immediately. By the time we were in the check out line, you were snoring. HOWEVER, I am happy to report that your colic is so much better! We figured out you don’t do well when I eat corn. So I stayed off it for nearly 3 months, I started eating popcorn (basically my favorite food) this last week and you seem to be just fine. Halelujah! I’m so sorry it took so long to figure it out, you poor boy.

Unfortunately, once the colic was figured out- you went through a horrible sleeping stage where you woke up ever hour. I thought I had it easy when you were first born you only woke up 1-2 times a night. For almost 2 months you were waking up on average 6 times a night. I felt like a zombie! You just wanted to eat, eat, eat, I think you were going through some growth spurt. Just this past couple weeks you’ve been back to waking up twice a night. Oh it is heavenly! I’m on such a learning curve.

You really crack us up lately. Often we’ll hear you on the baby monitor talking to yourself for quite a while. You love to be on the go. You like your carseat so much better now because you know that means you are going somewhere. (Until recently you’ve hated being put in that thing, and I usually resorted to holding you in the car). Almost every morning I go walking with Keisha and Rakae with you in the stroller. And 9 times out of 10 you are so happy and smiling away. Around 6 months is when it appears you overcame the colic problem. I didn’t have to give you gripe water after every feeding, and now I can eat my favorite food again- popcorn!! YAY.

You are so close to sitting up by yourself! You usually can for a few seconds until you turn your head and you tip over. We adore that pumpkin head of yours. You started rolling over a month or more ago, but lately you’ve decided you have had enough of that. You still hate being on your stomach, and I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to hold up that head either. Your wonderful (but large) head, that is. Ruth says you are a Hill through and through, and will decide when you’re ready for the next steps. She said Alex started walking when he was almost a year exactly. And for a long time he had no desire to take the training wheels off his bike. But one day he told his parents he wanted to take the training wheels off, and after a quick help from them, he took right off with hardly any trouble yelling “see ya later suckers!!” Hilarious.

My very favorite thing lately is your giggles. They kill me!! Usually you start giggling when I laugh, and it becomes a “giggle fest”. It is seriously the best!

I adore you and love that I get to spend all day with you!